Yes, some rendered ingredients are human grade. But…do human grade rendered ingredients go to pet food?
All animal protein pet food ingredients that include the word ‘meal’ are rendered ingredients, chicken meal; chicken by-product meal, beef meal, lamb meal, and so on. Animal sourced fat ingredients are also considered a rendered ingredient.
In the Federal Register, the FDA defines a renderer as: “any firm or individual that processes slaughter byproducts; animals unfit for human consumption, including carcasses of dead cattle; or meat scraps.”
The USDA defines rendering as: “Rendering is an off-site process that uses heat to convert animal carcasses into safe, pathogen-free feed protein and other valuable end products while reducing the negative effects of the carcasses on people and the environment.”
A 2004 report prepared for Congress (by the Congressional Research Services) explains rendering as: “Renderers convert dead animals and animal parts that otherwise would require disposal into a variety of materials, including edible and inedible tallow and lard and proteins such as meat and bone meal (MBM).”
All of these definitions indicate that rendered pet food ingredients are inferior quality at best – sourced from raw materials that are waste (“would require disposal”). But, the USDA gives us additional information that not all rendered ingredients are recycled waste feed ingredients.
“Rendering plants may be either integrated with existing packing or poultry processing plants or independent, receiving animal carcasses from farms, ranches, or other entities. Integrated rendering plants may produce edible fats and proteins that are often used in the manufacture of gelatins or cosmetics if they conform to Food and Drug Administration (FDA) processing standards.
- These edible materials must come from USDA inspected and passed carcasses
- Edible rendering is completely separate from inedible rendering, even in integrated plants“
Rendering facilities are either “integrated” – meaning they are part of USDA slaughter facilities, or they are “independent” – completely independent of any USDA processing facility. The USDA information tells us that integrated rendering facilities process two very different types of raw materials – edible and inedible. Edible and inedible rendered ingredients are processed in “completely separate” areas of an integrated rendering facility. Independent renderers produce solely inedible ingredients.
Edible = human grade. Edible rendered ingredients are ONLY sourced from inspected and passed animal materials.
Inedible = feed grade. Inedible rendered ingredients could be sourced from any of the following:
- inspected and passed animal materials (though we assume the majority of this material goes to edible rendering),
- inspected and condemned animal materials such as diseased animal parts, and/or
- non-slaughtered animal carcasses.
If your pet’s food contains a rendered ingredient, you deserve to know if the ingredient is edible or inedible – human grade or feed grade. Unfortunately, the FDA doesn’t agree. The FDA told us they did not believe transparency of pet food ingredient quality “would help consumers to know specifically how pet food differs from human food.”
On our own (with no help from regulatory authorities), pet owners can ask manufacturers if ingredients are edible or inedible. Manufacturers will often provide a ‘sort of’ response that is less than transparent such as:
“All of our ingredients are the highest quality.”
“All animal protein ingredients are sourced from USDA facilities.”
“All of our ingredients are considered feed grade because we manufacture in a pet food facility.“
None of the responses answers your question. Highest quality could still mean inedible feed grade – it’s opinion, not a quality standard. USDA facilities produce both edible and inedible pet food ingredients. And pet food manufacturing facilities could source either quality (edible or inedible) ingredient – they alone choose the quality of ingredient (and you deserve to know).
Don’t make the mistake to believe marketing claims. Some manufacturers might give the impression in their marketing they use only edible ingredients, but we have learned later their claims weren’t quite true. As example Champion Pet Food and Evanger’s Pet Food.
One more thing…
Just to give pet owners an idea of how much inedible ingredients are processed into pet food, the 2004 report prepared for Congress (quoted above) on the rendering industry stated “U.S. farm animal mortalities in 2000 included approximately 4.1 million cattle and calves (totaling 1.9 billion pounds); 18 million hogs (1 billion pounds); 833,000 sheep, lambs,and goats (64 million pounds); and 82 million chickens and turkeys (347 million pounds).“
Based on statistics nearly 20 years old, 3.3 billion pounds of JUST non-slaughtered animal carcasses are rendered into feed grade inedible ingredients – with no disclosure to pet owners. We can safely assume that number is significantly higher today.
Are you comfortable with your pet consuming “inedible” ingredients? Take the time to question your pet food manufacturer – are ingredients edible?
Wishing you and your pet(s) the best,
Susan Thixton
Pet Food Safety Advocate
Author Buyer Beware, Co-Author Dinner PAWsible
TruthaboutPetFood.com
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Johanna
April 26, 2021 at 12:48 pm
Susan, it’s been a while since I’ve caught up on the laws regarding human grade and rendered ingredients, and I was hoping you might have some input for me. I recently heard of a pet food called Zignature. Doing some basic research I found that they claim the following in answer to the question of their ingredient quality: “All Zignature® recipes use only the highest-quality ingredients and are made by factories that also produce food for people. Under FDA regulations, pet food cannot contain human-grade ingredients, though some pet food companies may claim to do so.” Could this be true?! Is there really an FDA law that states this? I remember hearing before that it’s against federal law to call pet food “food” unless it’s human grade, so did that change?
Can’t say enough thanks for all you do, please keep up the great work! 🙂
Susan Thixton
April 26, 2021 at 1:48 pm
No, that is not true. Pet food manufacturers absolutely can use human grade ingredients but are allowed to use feed grade ingredients – including ingredients that violate federal law. If Zignature pet foods were “made by factories that also produce food for people” they would be required by federal law to ONLY source human grade ingredients. No feed grade quality ingredient is allowed in human food manufacturing plants. Pet food has always been termed ‘food’ even though the majority of the products are actually feed.
Maddie
April 28, 2021 at 8:24 am
When a vet recommends a commercial pet food with the stipulation this is the ONLY way you can get a balanced meal, ask them to taste it. Will they? If they had confidence in the product they should.
I recently lost a dog to lymphoma. The vet spent more energy telling me I needed to feed the commercial food she recommended than the (vet balanced) home cooked meal the dog has consumed the entire 8 years of her life. She overlooked the continued plunge of red counts in the lab results and the dog suffered severe anemia. Even though I questioned the lab results, her focus was entirely on the food and changing to a novel protein. She recommended this food based on one study she heard about at a presentation from the manufacturer.